Building-blocks.



ELA. CHRSTPH.

l Bunnms BLOCKS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 26.; 1918. 1,307,331 IatentodJ une 17', 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET l E. A. CHRISTOPH. BUILDING BLOCKS. APPLICATION FILED MAR,2e, IQIs.

Patent'ed June 17, 1919.

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EDWARD A. CHRISTOPH, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO JACOB W. ELOYN,OF

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. i

:BUILDING-BLOCKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 1?, 191MB.

Application iiled `March 26, 1918. Serial No. 224,703.

T 0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, EDWARDA. CHRIS- TOPH, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inBuilding-Blocks, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, andeXact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,forming a part of this specification. n

My invention relates to building blocks.

More particularly my invention relates to building blocks having printedor painted on one side thereof certaln patterns and on another 'sidethereof diiferent patterns, from which a plurality of patriotic emblems,puzzles and like objects may be constructed.

The blocks are of uniform size and may be cut from any suitablematerial, such as wood, berboard, heavy cardboard or the like. Theblocks are cut from strips of the material, after the material has beenproperly prepared by smoothing oil' the surfaces on all sides and byprinting or painting the top and bottom surfaces in a certain mannerhereinafter described in detail. Each set consists of a plurality ofblocks, from which a variety of patriotic emblems, such as the American,French, Serbian and Russian flags, the letters U. S., puzzles and likeobjects may be built.

The object Vof my invention is to provide `a set of blocks out of' whichobjectsV may be constructed when the blocks are turned over Vofpatriotic emblems may be constructed when one side of the blocks isemployed and when the blocksare turned over a puzzle or other objectmayy be constructed, thus viding amusement.

Another objectof my inventionis to reduce the cost 0f manufacturing theblocks and to this end Iemploy a novel method of manufacture 4whichresults in a saving of material and labor.

These and other objects of my invention will be more clearly understoodby reference t0 the following specification and th accompanying drawingsin which:

v, Figures l, 2,55, and 4 are plan views of 5 to 8 inclusive.

strgips of material from which the blocks are cu Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 areplan views of the reverse side of the respective strips of materialshown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4;

Fig. 9 is a plan view of the blocks arranged to form the American flag;

Fig. 10 is a plan view of 6 blocks arranged to form a star;

Figs. 1l, 12 and 13 are plan views of blocks arranged to form,respectively, the French, Russian and Serbian flags;

Fig. 14 is a view of the blocks arranged to form a puzzle or an opticalillusion, and

Fig. 15 is a View of the blocks arranged to form the letters U. S.

The blocks are preferably of uniform size, and as shown in Figs. l to 8inclusive, they are cut from strips of material, 12 blocks beingobtained from eacn strip. The strips of material may be colored on bothsides as shown in the drawing. The blocks are sold preferably in sets of24 pieces. While two strips of material will provide 24 blocks, due

" to the combination of colors which must be ture, I will describe indetail each step in the order in which it is taken.

The four strips of material are selected and the sides and edges areplaned, sandpapered or otherwise smoothed down to provide a finishedsurface. The painting or printing step is the next taken and isperformed by employing suitable dies.

In Figs. l and 2 it will be noted that the strips aand b are alike sofar as the surface shown is concerned andare, therefore, printed fromthe ,same die. The strips c `and d `are also alike so far as the surfaceshown in Figs. 3 and 4 is concerned and are also printed from one die.Three dies are ernployed to print the surfaces on the reverse sides ofthestrips which are shown in Figs. On the reverse side the stripV ar; isprinted with adie to provide red stripes on the edges with a whitestripe in the center. The strip on the reverse side is printed with adie to provide white stripes kon the edges with a red stripe in thecenter,

16 plain red blocks.

The reverse sides of the strips c and d are printed from the same die toprovide on one edge a red stripe, then a white stripe, then a red stripeand lastly one-half of a white stripe. In printing the reverse side ofthe strips c and Z care must be taken to turn one of the strips aroundend for end, otherwise it will not be possible to build a perfect"American flag as will hereinafter be )ointed out. After the dye orpaint used to form the patterns has become thoroughly dried, the stripsmay be given a coat of varnish or shellac to give a more finishedappearance. Each strip is then cut into 12 pieces as indicated lin thedrawings by the dotted lines, the strips being cut preferably on anangle of 60 degrees to form diamond shaped blocks, the only wastematerial being the small corner pieces on the ends of the strips.

In Fig. 9 I have illustrated an American flag built from one set ofblocks, consisting of 2li pieces. To build the flag either the strips cor d may be taken and when properly arranged will form the upper half ofthe flag. The four pieces on whichV the i8 stars are printed are firstarranged in the upper left hand corner. Assuming, for example, that theblocks which are cut from the strip cl are being employed, and referringnow to Fig. S it will be seen that after taking out the four blocks onwhich the stars are printed, eight blocks will remain, each block beingprinted to form a red stripe, a white stripe, then a red stripe andlastly one-half of a white stripe. These eight blocks are arranged` asshown in Fig. 9 to form the seven upper stripes of the flag. It will benoted that in order to form the fourth stripe, which is n, white one,four of the blocks are turned around and matched against the other fourblocks. The blocks cut from the strips a and b have been numbered inorder to show clearly how it is not possible to build a perfect Hag fromthe blocks cut from two strips without employing a greater number ofdies than hereinbefore mentioned and involving extra labor and expense.To build the lower half of the flag it is necessary to employ six blockscut from the strip a and six blocks cut `from'the strip I). In Figs. 1and 2 it will be noted that there are eight plain white blocks and Inbuilding the lower three stripes of the flag I have taken the blocks 5,6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, cut from the strip a, Vthese blocks providing on thereverse side, as shown in Fig. 5, two red stripes, with a white stripebetween. From Fig. 1 it will be noted that the blocks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and10 are painted red on the opposite side. ,The remaining portion of theflag is built by taking the blocks 13, 14, 15, 16, 23 'and 24:

`cut from the strip Z2. These blocks provide two white stripes and onered stripe and -con'iplete the flag. 0n the reverse side it will benoted from Fig. 2 thatthe blocks 13, 141-, 23 and 21 are white, and theblocks 15 and 16 are red on the reverse side. Checking the blocks, itwill be found that the lower half of the flag, consisting of 12 blocksare colored on the reverse side to provide eight red 'blocksand fourwhite blocks, which combination is essential in order to build the otherobjects shown in Figs. 10 to 1a inclusive and checking the matterfurther it will be found that the remaining 12 blocks from the strips aand b have the same color combination on both sides as the blocks usedto form thelower half of the ag shown in Fig. 9. It is not absolutelyessential that the particular blocks shown in Fig. 9 be taken as it isobvious that any of the blocks 17 to 22 inclusive, may be employed in'place of block 15, for example. The essential point to be observed isthat six blocks must be employed from each of the strips a and tocomplete the flag, and these must be selected so that the proper colorcombinations appear on the reverse side, otherwise the set will not becomplete. It will now be appa-rent that by following out the method ofmanufacture hereinabove described, it is possible to obtain fromthe fourstrips of` material, two complete sets of blocks exactly alike inallrespects and it will alsoV be apparent that by the same method ofmanufacture, it is not possible to make a complete 'set of blocks of 24pieces from any two of the strips of material.

In Figs. 10 to 15 inclusive, I have illustrated a number of objectswhich may be built from a set of these blocks. It will be obvious thatother objects of varying shapes and sizes may be built from Ia set ofthe blocks.

Since the blocks are painted or printed on the top and bottom sides, itrequires considerable patience and work on the part of a child to build,for example, the American flag. It also requires a knowledge of theexact formation of the flag in order to arrange or assemble the blocksto form a complete and perfect flag.

The blocks are particularly useful in connection vwith kindergartenwork, furnishing not only a means of amusement for children, but 'alsoteaching patriotism and bringing to their minds a clearer conception ofthe exct plan .and formation of the American It will be obvious to thoseskilled in the art that the blocks may be made in a variety of Shapesand sizes, for example, the strips of material may beV square incross-section and the blocks cut off at right angles, thus making theblocks in the shape of a cube. It will also be obvious that the patternsmay be placed on one side and one edge instead of being placed onoppositesides and if desired patterns may be placed von all sides andedges, thus making more diiiicult the task of matching the blocks toform the complete patterns. I do not intend, therefore, to be limited tothe exact construction described herein in detail as many modificationswill suggest them selves to those skilled in the art.

What l claim is:

1. A set of play blocks adapted to be associated to produce, among otherdesigns, the

simulation of the American flag 1n proper colors, the blocks beinguniform as to, size and shape and adapted to be associated in fourhorizontal rows in the flag, each block which forms the flag beingeither red and white or blue and white.

V2. A set of play blocks adapted to be associated to produce variousemblems, including the simulation of the American iiag in propercolors,the blocks being uniform as to size and shape and adapted to beassociated in four horizontal rows in the flag, no single block carryingmore than one color other than white.

3. A set of play blocks adapted to be associated to produce variousemblems, including the simulation of the American flag in proper colors,the blocks being uniform as to size and shape and having 60 deg. anglesat their corners, and adapted to be associated in four horizontal rowsto produce the flag, the field and opposed seven red and white stripesconstituting two rows or blocks and the siX full length red and whitestripes constituting the remaining two rows of blocks.

4. The herein described method of manufacturing play blocks for makingthe simulation of the American flag in proper colors, which consists in,taking four identical strips, printing identical patterns on one side ofeach of two of the strips in red, and a different pattern on each of theother two strips in blue, the patterns on the second two strips beingidentical with each other, printing parallel stripes on the oppositeface of one of the first two strips, the stripes running from end to endand consisting of two red stripes separated by a white stripe, printingsimilar but complementary red and white stripes on the opposite side ofthe other of the first two strips, then printing the opposite sides ofthe second two strips from a single die and providing thereon two redstripes separated by a white stripe, and a half width white stripe onone edge of each, then cutting the four strips into similar blocks byparallel cuts, then dividing the blocks into two identical sets, eachset made up of one half the blocks from each of the first two strips andall of the blocks from one of the second two strips, thereby producingtwo sets of blocks from said four strips and by the use of a minimumnumber of dies.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe Vmy name this 22nd day of March,A. D.

EDWARD A. CHRISTOPH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

